Whatever you want to call them... juglines... noodles... plastic jugs or pool float sections with a line underneath and the whole thing floats... couple questions.

How many is reasonable to put out? You have to watch them or they can get away.

How deep do you fish on a river? On a lake? I fish Red River and also will fish a lake.

Anyone have any revelations about how they have modified their jug rig to work best? I wonder if a Gatorade bottle is large enough to work. I use them for limb lines because they have a groove in the middle and it makes for a nice place to wrap the line when transporting them.

And do you place your weight or the hook at the very bottom?

What bait do you favor?

There are 1000 ways to skin a cat...there 1000 ways to fish a jug...I'm a rod and reel fisherman but I have run jugs with my dad many times on lake Lewisville..we use a modified pool noodle with a 3- way rig...vary depth from 4-20 ft until we found what worked...would throw out 10-15 jugs in a line, when one of your jugs get yanked out of the line go get your fish...when they are really biting, you can't run many lines. We used chopped bluegill to stay on the hook good. It's a lot more fun to catch blues on a rod. Good luck

Never done jugs myself figured it would be a pain when you get a fish on to go chase the jug . Trotlines stay where there supposed too !

Well for the most part they do I guess dead mans kind of move a little .

jugs are a pain! But the thrill of the chase is exciting and that's why guys jug ... You can catch just as many or more drifting 5 rods and its a lot less work...I'm a lazy SOB

Haha yah I kinda am too . So do you put weights on jugs ? You said a three way swivel so I assumed there's a weight in there somewhere

The modified noodle is weighted with a piece of rebar inside the pvc end cap..not enough to make it Bob but just enough to get the noodle to start to tilt...the line rig is weighted lightly on bottom of 2 ft leader to 3-way swivel to 6" leader to #8 circle ...your weight should be heavy enough to hold bait down.

I free float mine to drift with the breeze toward the bank. One 8/0 hook per noodle from 4 to 8ft deep with 1 oz weight. When they are biting it's hard to even keep up with a dozen but I usually have 24 in the boat. I use perch and chicken breast. If you put them in the Red they gonna end up in Texarkana if some Okie don't find em first:)

We use those 32 oz powerade bottles. Use a 8 ft line and a 2 oz egg sinker about 18" from the hook. Hook is a 5/0 circle hook. Just set them out in a line and let them drift. Lot of times when they are drifting we go bow fish or crappie fish. Come back in a hour or so and check them. If you set them on a river, set them out and go down river and wait for them to drift to you. Pick up the ones that make it to you and go find the others.

Drifting them towards you in a river sounds like a good idea !

this ^^^^ free float them from deep towards bank...chicken breast excellent bait for blue cats

Unfortunately, there are people that will be glad to run your lines if you leave them. We were run off the lake by lightning one evening. Went back to get them the next morning, someone had already help themselves.
Watch and chase, have fun.

What do you use for a gear tag?

You can actually write the info on the jug your using.

I printed out my name tags and laminated them and zip tied them to my jugs and noodles.

Does the laminated hold up from being in the water? Sounds like a good idea there.

The date is only good for 10 days though. That's a lot of marking out and would soon run out of room.

I've had great luck with the laminated tags.

I use duct tape to write the date on. Just peel and stick another date on.

Works great. I use the white tape.

I like the red or hot pink, easier to see from a distance :-) good luck

I write my name and address with permanent marker, then the date with a china marker. Easy to rub off then write a new date.

On Lewisville, I would throw jugs out and determine which way they would drift. I would anchor downstream (downwind) and watch them. I had a Clorox bottle attached to my anchor line. When one flagged, I would just untie the anchor line and retrieve the jug, remove fish, and rebait. Then I would go snag my anchor line and tie up and wait again.

I started using cattle ear tags for my gear tags. I write my info on them with a permanent marker. I rarely use a jug but will put out a limb line on occasion. I like to do the lines in very early spring late winter when I don't want to sit and wait hours for a bite. I use goldfish often this time of year and have had decent success with them. They
stay alive for several days if they are not eaten. The ear tags are available at most feed stores.

I paint all my jugs white (1$ walmart paint ) after I have dated them a few times just hit the name/date with paint and your ready to write some more dates on the jug.Also in my jugs I put pea gravel in the jug that will make it flag with a bite.